San Martino Gastronomia

This was a special place to have lunch during a quick tour of Monterosso last weekend! A super easy walk from the train station, this restaurant served us the best seafood we had in Italy. It was pouring rain so we were excited to get one of the indoor tables. The staff were incredibly friendly and explained the dishes and options. I was excited to learn they can serve a mix of all three of the seafood salads, so I got that to share with my group, along with the seafood spaghetti. Everything tasted amazing, and fresh! I’m still thinking about the sauce in my pasta dish. If you have a chance to grab a meal in Monterosso, I recommend heading here. If you like seafood, you’ll love this restaurant!

This small restaurant was a great find thanks to Google reviews. It's clearly very good and highly rated as it was the only restaurant in the area to still have a queue for a table at 9:00 p.m. I highly recommend booking as we had no wait for our table. The food was delicious. The homemade bread outstanding. The vegetable platter, the seafood soup and the stuffed anchovies were amazing. They were easily able to accommodate gluten-free and there were plenty of vegetarian options if you required. The waitress we had on the night was outstanding. She was particularly good at listening to our wine style preferences then making local recommendations. She was spot on every time, incredibly friendly and very efficient.

Lovely little restaurant in the old city center. Great food for a good price. The swordfish was excellent. You can not reserve tables so be prepared to wait a couple of minutes before something frees up (or come early).

I highly recommend you this place. I ate pasta with seafood and it was really flavourful, there were a plenty of various seafood. Trofie al pesto was also great. Ravioli with ragu was good, but it was nothing outstanding. It was a little bit too dry for me. Prices are very reasonable, which is rare in this area. You have to prepare for a queue. I came here right after the opening and I had to wait for the table.

Amazing food. They don't take bookings, so make sure to queue up early. They had really great prices compared to some of the other restaurants around.

Went in the middle of lunch rush so we had to wait. Place is popular. My dish was the anchovies with Linguini...was a little on the salty side (olives, garlic and anchovies itself have high salt content) but sauce and pasta was good. Would skip the mixed seafood plate, spaghetti with clams and mussels was good. Pro tip: clean, modern WC. Paid 77 euros for party of 4, no wine.

I had the trofie al pesto which was very good. The other dishes my family had were also quite good. However a lot of the dishes weren’t available at the time, and the staff could be a bit more friendly.

Visited this cozy Lingurian restaurant stone's throw away from the Monterosso train station. It is a highly rated, family run establishment and they did not disappoint. Do note that they only serve main course and beverages (alcoholic and non-alcoholic). We went there around 6:30pm for dinner as a party of four. We each had a main course - trofie al pesto (trofie is a handmade twisted shaped pasta), mixed seafood spaghetti, linguine with fresh anchovies and linguine with swordfish (that is perfect shredded into small bite sized pieces). Our server was friendly and gladly assisted us to a crisp, fruity, semi dry white wine bottle from the region of Cinque Terre, which was the perfect combination with each of our dishes. One bottle served each of us around 1.5 glass of white wine. Definitely a must-visit for fresh seafood in Cinque Terre, and the prices are surprisingly quite affordable. The busy hours are generally between 6pm to 8pm, so be prepared to wait for a while until you get seated. We preferred the outdoor seating as the weather was pleasant.

Just a good place to have a meal and drink! The service is good and so is the atmosphere! Everything was good, no complaints!

O.M.G. Bound to discover the best seafood pasta of my life! I haven't been a fan of seafood with pasta because the ones I've had hadn't been paired well, but kudos to this chef who changed my perspective! Each seafood (calamari, clams, mussels) was extremely fresh and you cannot smell the ocean sea water like ones I've had in the past. Pasta was al dente and tomato sauce was perfecto! I devoured it and wanted more. So I ordered the linguine with anchovies which was recommended by the waitress. The local white wine paired nicely with the seafood pasta as well. Very friendly. Chef would smile and say ciao to me occasionally as he's cooking. Friendly, fast, delicious, and so glad I stumbled upon this gem. Turn right at the church as you're entering from the beach, it's right by it. Definitely will be back, maybe tomorrow! Nice seating and ambiance in patio. Highly recommend!

This place was recommended to me and now I absolutely can see why. The best pesto I've had and those raviolis knocked me off my feet. Truly something special, but is only opened 3 hours a night - so be sure to get there early so you don't miss out on a wonderful dinner experience!

This is a beautiful little Italian restaurant. We sat outside to enjoy our dinner. I had the seafood spaghetti with a glass of white wine. My food came out hot, and the spaghetti was cooked perfectly. I highly recommend this restaurant.

Great food. The service is a bit slow and the place is cramped. But overall a great place to visit. Not meant for groups bigger than 4. Would eat there again.

On a trip filled with incredible food, this little spot in Cinque Terre was a standout. Food was absolutely delicious, fresh and high quality. Plus very reasonably priced. If we are in the area again, we will absolutely be back!

Lovely spot in one of the most characteristic and photographed steps in Monterosso. The restaurant is really tiny with just few seats available, ideal for quick lunch or dinners and take away. Their pastas are hands down the best and most flavorful in Monterosso. The service really polite and the prices are even less than the local average. Do yourself a favor and go grab a quick lunch at this place, try their seafood pasta and come back here to thank me!

Definitely recommend the pesto pasta here. The pesto was so obviously fresh and the flavors of all the ingredients were so strong. If you're a pesto lover you're going to LOVE this dish. The pasta was cooked to perfection and the service was great! We got there at opening time and there was already a wait so definitely get there early!

We had a very nice dinner here to end our honeymoon in Italy. After a day of hiking, it was with relief that we made it here, and we were ready to eat. However, their ordering system was a little confusing at first. First you stand in line to order inside the restaurant from a cafeteria-style display. However, before you can order, they have to find you a table, which is not easy as there a couple of tables inside and a handful outside across the street. We awkwardly waited in line inside without ordering until a table opened up outside. But once we had a table, it was smooth sailing. We ordered: - Spaghetti with seafood: Light, flavorful, and absolutely loaded with mussels, octopus, and squid. This was my husband's favorite, but I thought it tasted a little too fishy for me, and I never say that about seafood. - Lasagna with meat sauce: Many reviews rave about this, and with good reason. It's some of the best lasagna I've had. The cheese they use (is it even ricotta?) is incredibly smooth and creamy. - Pansotti with walnut sauce: My favorite! The walnut sauce is delicious--nutty, rich, and just slightly bitter. Combined with the pansotti, it was perfect. I savored every bite and was scraping the plate to get every last drop of sauce. Unfortunately some of the things on the menu that I wanted to order had run out, and we had dinner relatively early, so get there really early if you want the full selection. Also, we noticed that they use store-bought pasta, which isn't the end of the world, but made the experience feel a little less authentic. Prices are on the lower side for Italy, so this is an excellent value. With the number of other restaurants I wanted to try in Monterosso al Mare, I might not come back, but you can't go wrong here.

Amazing. When I plan activities during travel, I plan also for where to feast en route. This place is worth planning around! Our family of 4 ordered 4 plates and a shared vegetable plate, AND a bottle of local white wine for UNDER 50€?! Wow! And I love the concept: go in, order, sit, they bring food, repeat until full, then pay. An outstanding value for fantastic food. If I was staying in this town, I'd be here every day without question.

Best. Pasta. That is all I can say. Their walnut pansotti is the best pasta I've ever had. The sauce is light and unique and I sopped it all up with bread afterwards because I couldn't get enough. The filling is also delicious (cheese and spinach) and it all complimented each other so well. Their pesto trofie also is so fresh--the pesto really tastes better than any other pesto I've had. Definitely a must-go for lunch. I wish I found it earlier because I would've gone more than once!!! It is not expensive at all. So worth the 10 euro per pasta dish.

This place is awesome. They have like 8 different dishes you can choose from. Very no frills you order at the counter and they serve everything on plastic plates and utensils. The price is right ranging from 6 to 10 euros. Don't let the small interior fool you. The pasta is out of this world. We ordered meat ravioli in bolognese sauce, meat lasagna, and seafood pappardelle. I don't like ravioli but this ravioli is the BEST I've ever tasted. I think they might use sausage for the meat because it was so moist. The bolognese sauce was just right and not heavy at all. I'm only sad that I discovered this place so late in my stay otherwise I would have gone there more often and ordered the ravioli every single time. The owner is a very nice man and explained the specials for that day. Do yourself a favour and go there. Pronto.

This place gets so much hype online and in Rick Steves, but after dining here I don't really get it. I had insisted we go here after reading about how great it was, but I wouldn't go out of my way to return. The casual nature did not deter me -- I just didn't think the food was that mind-blowing. Pros: good prices, quick service. I enjoyed my trofie with pesto sauce. Cons: My husband got one of the daily specials, and it tasted and looked more like glorified cafeteria food. It was serviceable, but not hype-worthy. I had many much better meals in Italy.

I had to come to San Martino three separate tomes before I finally got to try their pansotti. The first time it was closed, the second time they were out. Just my luck! Popped in minutes after they opened for dinner to grab a snack and every seat in the house (they have indoor and outdoor seating) was full. Nonetheless, I ordered my pansotti and enjoyed a peroni on a nearby stoop. The staff was lovely and had even recognized me from my earlier failed attempts. I got my food quickly and it was delicious. Everything in the restaurant looked good and I was so sad that I wasn't hungry enough to sample more. I get why the place is highly regarded.

Very cute little patio restaurant with very nice chef guy. You order inside and bring your food outside. We got a bottle of the local Vino Rosso and some pasta dishes and had a nice time relaxing on the patio. Very casual. Love it.

Cinque Terre is a great place to take a break on your Italian tour, no lines, no running around, just enjoying life. San Martino is the essence of Cinque Terre. Fun, great people, with great food. Pansotti with walnut sauce is now our favorite Italian dish, trofie with fresh pesto, a local specialty, was amazing and the tagliolini with fresh mussels was fantastic. You can also find a variety of local wines in their shop. Chef Galati and his wife take the time to explain what dishes are a perfect combination and are really great people. Yelp doesn't recognize the address, but it is definitely in Monterosso. There are a few tables, but they also do take-away so you can eat on a bench by the water.

BEST FOOD we had in ALL of ITALY! SERIOUSLY! If you're visiting Cinque Terre, make sure to make a stop at Monterosso for a meal. Pasta is made fresh daily. We had the linguini with shrimp and it was AMAZING... it was honestly the best pasta dish I ever had. Really feels like you're eating a homemade meal! The owner (wife) and chef (husband) are a friendly duo and very down to earth. Gave great recommendations. I'm still dreaming about the white wine that she recommended to us! A lot of people seem to take the food to-go but there are tables outside where we enjoyed our food and wine out of a plastic cup! We really enjoyed this restaurant. It's a no-fuss, all-about-the-food type of establishment. Prices and portions are perfect. Flavor, can't be beat!

Very tasty place. It is more of a cafeteria style restaurant. You order at the counter, you bring your food to your table and pay at the register when you're done. While the lasagnas are precooked, most of the other food is cooked upon ordering. The spinach "ravioli" with walnut sauce was the most unique item we had. Most reviewers here and on tripadvisor enjoyed the pesto lasagna, it was good but just didn't blow my socks off. The seafood linguine was solid.

A real treat! They friendliest staff anywhere in Italy and the food is authentic and fresh. We had meat Lasagne and a pesto lasagne and both were brilliant. Very well priced and meals can be made to take away. A good option for a relaxed but tasty dinner. I very much recommend and will be back again! Double thumbs up.

This place is amazing. The food was the best seafood we have had in Italy so far. The owner was super friendly. We asked to try everything and he gave us the perfect portions for each... Thank you so much!

Thanks for leading me to this Yelpers! The BF and I came here after our hike from Vernazza (yes we were rebels and walked the "opposite" direction! lol). We needed a place that wouldn't mind our sweaty grungy look. Super small place, totally affordable and a great way to try a little of everything!

Honest food at a good price with reasonable ( but slow ) service. Located on a side street but has a decent ambiance. The fish dishes are quite unique and very very good. The prices are very reasonable considering the quality and portion sizes.

You must try the octopus! Just Amazing!!! The walnut sauce is also fantastic. Really one of the highlights of our trip. Not too expensive, laid back. Look past the plastic forks for a really, really good place to enjoy your holiday experience.

Very good! Seems to be family run. Food is as good as you will get anywhere at half the price. Pesto and walnut sauces are wonderful! Order at there counter and come pick it up there in a few minutes. The lady behind the counter is a little gruff, but don't let that bother you. You have to use plastic forks, plates and knifes, if that matters to you I would not go there. I tried both of the two local wines, both were equally good.

Absolutely outstanding! This place needs a lot more reviews. Possibly the best dinner I have had on this Italy trip and that included a meal at a well respected Venice restaurant that was 10 times as expensive. The owners are a delight and quick to recommend a great meal. I told them to surprise me and that they did with a lovely crepe filled with spinach and cheese, lasagna and ravioli. My wife had an incredible black and white pasta seafood dish that tasted like it was just pulled from the ocean. Will be back and soon.

Everything is so fresh, authentic and delicious. Awesome dinner spot! Run by a husband and wife. He makes all pasta fresh every day and the meat and fish is also very fresh. The husband and wife were an absolute delight to talk to and couldn't beat the price and the food quality. You go in a choose the type of pasta, meat/fish, and side you want and he makes the dish for you. My fiance had the grilled octopus with pasta and it was out of this world. My spinach gnocchi and fish dish was so fresh and authentic as well. Off the beaten path a bit but so worth it. Wine and dishes for two was less than 20 euros! And he was so nice he gave us a mini bottle of wine for free to take away. A must visit in Monterosso! He was feeding his son and nieces and nephews at a little side table in side. So cute.

If you're looking for great Italian food at a good price then this is your place! The owners are SO nice as well. It's more of a place to go to get more bang for your buck and not crazy nice food. Definitely stop in here when you're Cinque Terra!

If you're in fabulous Monterosso in the Cinque Terre, don't miss this place to eat. You order at the counter. The plates and utensils are plastic, but don't let that stop you. The food is fresh and is prepared in front of you. You order at the counter. We were here last September. The sword fish and meat-based lasagna were outstanding. We had a great bottle of wine for 13 euros. The total bill was 31 euros. It's a little place inside and also has some tables outside. Lots of locals were here eating. This place is not fancy at all, but it's a breath of fresh air.

Best food so far on our trip to Italy. The ravioli with walnut sauce was the best I have ever had anywhere! The owner are super friendly and very helpful. They gave excellent recommendations and let us mix and match the dishes that when we couldn't choose just one. We will be coming back often!

Really, really good food. Authentic dishes, fresh and delicious. Great hospitality. It is serve yourself sort of...but the owners are kind and interested in you having a great dinner. Have to look past the plastic cups and cutlery and enjoy the tastes!